In these chapters Moses and Aaron do as God tells them, going to Pharaoh and telling him that the Lord, the God of Israel, has said for him to let His people go. However, the Pharaoh's heart is hardened and no matter what he does not listen. He treats the people even more horribly, working them harder than before. Moses finds this frustrating, returning to the Lord, asking Him why He has brought trouble upon the people?
God makes a promise - that even though the Pharaoh's heart is hardened now, even though he is not believing, the people will be delivered. He tells Moses that He remembers the covenant He made and because of His mighty hand Pharaoh will let His people go! He tells Moses to say to the Israelites, "I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession, I am the LORD (Exodus6:6-8). He tells this to the Israelites, but they still do not listen because they have been treated so awfully.
So the LORD tells Moses to go back to Pharaoh and tell him everything that He says. He tells Moses that to Pharaoh Moses is like a God and that Aaron is like a prophet...He tells him that he needs to say everything He tells him and that Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go from his country. Yet, the LORD also makes it known that He is going to harden Pharaoh's heart and Pharaoh will not listen to them still. Then, God will lay His hands on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment He will bring out His divisions and because of this the Egyptians will know that He is the LORD.
The LORD tells Moses that when Pharaoh asks Moses to preform a miracle because he still does not believe...to throw down his and Aaron's staffs and they will turn into snakes. Pharaoh called wise men and sorcerers, and Egyptian magicians to him...they did the same thing...throwing down their staffs and turning them into snakes. And even though Aaron's snake swallowed up all the others, Pharaoh's heart was still hard. So, the LORD again tells Moses to do another miracle. He tells him, that when Pharaoh goes to get water from the Nile to turn into blood, so Moses does as he is told but because the Egyptian magicians can do the same, his heart does not change...and this is when the plague begins.
The fact that Pharaoh's heart is hardened to the LORD is nothing new, at least not when I look at the world I live in now. There are so many hearts that are hardened to Him, so many hearts that do not know Him. Yet, God does not give up when people's hearts are hardened! How thankful I am for that! I do not believe anyone would have a heart for the LORD if it weren't for the fact that He is a persistent, all loving God. He does not give up on us when we say we do not believe, when we do not want Him to be apart of our lives, when we walk away from Him. Time and time again...He presses at our hearts trying desperately to soften them. I am so thankful that He does not give up...that He believes in me, that He wants to be in my life, and that He doesn't walk away from me! He is so good and faithful! His hand is mighty - it is such a strong hand that is able to pull people out of the biggest hole, the biggest pain, the biggest lie. It is such a strong hand that is able to soften the hardest of hearts. I believe that these things - slavery (or other hard things) and hardened hearts are still for a reason. Yes, they are difficult, but they happen so we can see God's strength and His love. If it weren't for those things would we be able to see how strong and mighty He really is? He allows the awful things...the hardened hearts...so He can use His hand and set us free, so we can see how truly great He is and how much all of creation needs Him!
No comments:
Post a Comment